You Can't Call It Cheating
by KJL
Summary: He sat himself down next to her bed, as she turned her head to look at him. He knew he was never going to be able to forget the tortured look she gave him. Ever. Bria. Jesse/Mia. Title from Cheatin' by Gin Blossoms.


**A/N: I'm feeling very Jesse/Mia (Jia? Messe?) today, and I'm listening to Always the Last to Know by Del Amitri... and I love Jesse. I just miss him. And that makes Brian the unrequited lover. Hahahahaha. I do love torturing that boy. Purely because Paul Walker is almost 36 and I'm never going to be old enough for him... *Sob*. I honestly cried all day when I found out he was a little more than 20 years older than me... Plus, he's 6 three. Which makes him a foot and a half taller than me. It just never would've worked out. *Sniffle* I also thank my beta, Kat, who may or may not actually beta this, I may just put it directly up, I'm bored.

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Mia was never as innocent as they'd assumed she was. She'd hooked up with Vince once before, which was why he'd always baited her about Cha Cha Chica's. She'd been turning him down ever since though. It was a one-night stand and nothing more, and Mia Torretto was going to keep it that way.

However, they still thought her a little girl in the back of all their minds, and she knew it. She'd tried hard to keep that reputation, until the one morning they'd caught her sleeping with Jesse. Literally sleeping, as in wrapped up in his arms and snoring softly. But they'd all guessed what had happened... and, well. That brought her to right now.

"Fuck, Dom, it wasn't a one-night stand!" She squinted her eyes, knowing Jesse knew it was, and she just hoped he'd have the balls to stay quiet and go against what Dom thought, for once in his life.

"Explain to me what the hell it was, then, Mia! Because I know you slept with Vince," he lowered his voice and moved closer, speaking just to Mia. "And you've been giving him the run around ever since. That tells me you're only into one-night stands with my team. And that's not cool, Mia. But especially not with Jesse. That kid is fragile."

"He's not that fragile, Dom, or he wouldn't have gotten into it with me. He knew what my reputation was. And it's not a one-night stand. I fully intend to date him."

"Mia, if you fuck with my team again..."

"Dom, I'm trying my damn hardest. I'm not gonna hurt him."

"You're hurting Brian. Why the hell would you-"

"Oh, now you care about Brian getting hurt, Dom? That's real rich, considering you left him standing in the desert."

"I left him with a ride, Jesus Christ. Anyways, you were pissed when you found out he was a cop too!"

"But I at least went with him!"

"By brute force! Quit bullshitting, you've said yourself that you never would've gone with him if he hadn't basically dragged you into the car."

"Okay, fine, so I was pissed too. I still wouldn't have left him in the desert!"

"But you would hurt him by sleeping with Jesse? Oh, yeah, Mia, you've got great standards."

"Shut your fucking face, you're one to talk about standards, Dominic Torretto."

They were in each other's faces as only brother and sister can be, and screaming loud enough so the neighbors could hear. Brian O'Connor, previously unaware of the situation, found himself being clued in against his will as he heard the screams from the kitchen all the way out in the garage. He heard and then tuned out the rest of it as best he could.

"Hey," Vince walked up to the ex-cop, in what looked to be some sort of peace offering. "We were gonna make her tell you as soon as she got done arguing with Dom... we didn't think they'd yell loud enough for you to hear."

"No big," Brian waved him off without looking at him, still turned towards his Skyline. Secretly, of course he was disappointed and pissed, because he'd planned to pop the question soon. But it looked like that clearly wasn't going to happen.

"Are we cool, man? Like I said, I'm sorry Mia's being a bitch, she never used to be... but then again, Jesse never used to appeal to her either."

"Yeah, we're cool." Brian shook Vince's hand before going back under the Skyline. He pretended to be working, but he was really still listening to the yelling in the kitchen.

* * *

"So what, is he taking you out now? Or are you just sleeping with him?"

"Why do you fucking care? It's not gonna fuck with the team no matter what you think, so it shouldn't matter what I do with the kid!" And before Dom could get a reply out, she finished, "And I really like him, Dom, I'm not letting go of this one."

"What about Brian?"

"What about him?"

"You were dating him, Mia! He was about to propose, and you're gonna break his heart now?"

"Fuck, do you think I would've cheated if I'd known?" Mia sat back against the kitchen counter. Holy shit... she'd honestly had no idea....

"Gotta admit, Mia, you sound like a real bitch right about now."

"You know something, Dom? I'm sick of listening to your hypocritical shit." Mia walked out of the kitchen, head held high.

She marched herself straight to her car, got in, and shoved the key in the ignition. Just as she was about to shift gears and peel out of the parking lot, Brian walked up to her car window.

"Brian, I can't talk right now." She saw the hurt in his eyes and she knew that he knew. "I'm sorry." She knew that if she tried to talk this out now, she'd make everything worse. She really liked Jesse, and she honestly wasn't sure why she'd cheated on Brian. If she'd known that he loved her enough to propose... she never would've done it. "I'm going for a drive. We'll talk when I get back?"

He nodded, took his hand off the car, and let her drive off. He knew it was probably better for everyone if the conversation waited. Nonetheless, as stupid as he knew it was, all he wanted to do was drag her out of the damn car and kiss her till she forgot Jesse existed. It wasn't possible, but it was what he wanted.

He slowly walked back inside the garage, tuning everything out and getting that numb inside feeling... ignoring Vince and Dom asking him if he was okay, ignoring Jesse's guilty look, ignoring the furtive looks everyone was shooting him, but accepting the hug from Letty. He was back under the Skyline, working furiously, and the only thing in the garage was the rap music playing on the radio and the clanking and rattling of various parts, with the occasional curse thrown in if someone screwed something up.

The next sound was the garage phone ringing. Dom pulled himself out from under the car and grabbed it. "Torretto's."

There was silence as they all waited, trying to get a sense of what the call was about. Letty walked up towards Dom, who put his arm around her unthinkingly.

"Where is she?" Dom's voice took on an edge of panic, and they all immediately became alert. When Dom panicked, something was obviously wrong. "Okay. Yeah. Thanks." He hung up the phone, sighed, and turned to his team.

"Mia crashed the car into a guardrail." He flicked his eyes first at Brian, then Jesse. "Let's go."

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Brian was driving as fast as was safe, and he knew he was screwed if a cop came upon him. But at the moment, he didn't care. He didn't know if Mia was stable or okay or even breathing right now, Dom hadn't said anything except what had happened, and truth be told, Brian was more than a little freaked out. He knew that, on some level, it wasn't his fault. But if he'd been more loving and less full of surprises, maybe she wouldn't have slept with Jesse. He sent up a silent prayer, never taking his hands off the wheel, and he was the first one to pull into the parking lot. He headed straight inside without waiting for the others, which he knew was breaking Dom's main rule. He just hoped he'd be forgiven, because at the moment he wasn't really thinking. Not straight, not at all. He marched himself up to the desk, got the room number, and in the back of his mind, had the sense to wait in the lobby for everyone else to get inside. He told them the room number. Everyone eschewed the elevator and ran up the stairs. Brian was sure they'd scared a couple people along the way, a giant gang clambering up the stairs at break-neck pace.

He almost laughed at himself; he was pretty sure this was what going crazy felt like. Everything was a little bit blurry and his thought process was very slow moving – not even, but in jagged moments, like when you wave a pencil in front of a computer screen and you can see it stop in random places every second or so? Like that....

* * *

The next thing he remembered they were all congregated outside in the waiting room and Dom and Letty were the only ones actually allowed to see her, being family.

He was perfectly calm, okay, fine, in shock would be a more correct term, sitting there in the waiting room on those damn uncomfortable chairs, contented to stay in his own unraveling mind, but Jesse was suddenly sitting next to him.

"Brian?" He looked up, and seeing Jesse was as wild-eyed as he was, relaxed as best he could.

"What, Jesse?" He tried to keep all the bitterness out of his voice, but he wasn't sure if he'd succeeded.

"I'm sorry, man. She never said anything about you guys being engaged...."

"We weren't yet. It's okay, Jess, I know you wouldn't have done it if you'd known."

"I fucked up, Brian. You've been cool to me the whole time, and.... I really didn't know you guys were still together and serious, when she came up to me, I just went along with her, you know?"

The honesty in the kid's voice just made it harder. She'd come onto him? He was really that bad that she'd had to go to another guy? He shook his head, trying to physically clear his thoughts. "It's cool, dude, honest." He grabbed Jesse's hand and gave him that half hug all the guys do.

"Thanks, man." Jesse's face visibly lifted. "I mean, you've always been cool, and I didn't know, and I didn't want to fuck things up even worse."

Brian nodded, his eyes focused on Dom and Letty, who were just coming out of Mia's room. Dom's face looked longer and leaner than usual, and Letty was crying, which was never, ever good. His eyes met Dom's, who nodded and waved him in. He got up, wondering what the hell was appropriate to say in this situation. It wasn't every day you had to talk to the girl who'd cheated on you while she was lying injured on a hospital bed.

* * *

"Mia?" He sat himself down next to her bed, as she turned her head to look at him. He knew he was never going to be able to forget the tortured look she gave him. Ever. He grabbed her hand, half out of guilt, half just to reassure himself she was here.

"Bri!" She bit her lip. "Bri, I'm so sorry, I-"

"Shhh, shhh, you're gonna make yourself sick. I know you are. It's okay."

"I don't know why I did it, I just... you were gone, and I was so lonely, and I had no idea you loved me enough to buy me a ring...."

He ducked his head in shame. That part was his fault. "I'm sorry, Mi. I just... I didn't know how to tell you..."

"It's okay. You're here now."

"So when are they letting you out?"

Mia sniffed. "Tonight, I guess, once they make sure I haven't been totally screwed up. I'm just bruised and sprained, they said, but I.... I totaled my Nissan." And he felt her pain, since she, Brian, and Dom had been working on that car for months. But the important thing was that nothing had happened to her. And she was clearly thinking the same thing as she sat up, patted the bed next to her, and held her arms out. She just wanted to be held, to know all was forgiven, and she was hurting. He couldn't resist her on the best of days, what the hell was he supposed to do now? So he sat next to her and pulled her onto his lap, letting her wrap her arms around his neck and lay against his chest. He had his arms as tight as he dared around her waist, and it was comfortable. And, he realized, he couldn't blame her for not knowing he loved her, because he couldn't remember the last time he'd just held her. Shit, he'd come so close to losing her.

"So..... are you gonna ask me?"

"Here?" In a shitty hospital room surrounded by nursing staff, she really expected him to get down on one knee and ask her?

"I'm afraid of waiting any longer." And her big brown eyes looked at him, and he was lost. "I'm not expecting you to get down on one knee, Bri. I just don't wanna wait anymore."

Well, she had him there. And so, he pulled the ring out of his pocket (he'd had it on him ever since that morning.) and popped it open in front of her. "Mia Elizabeth Torretto, will you marry me?"

And just for tradition's sake, she said yes before kissing him. And as they broke apart, he slid the ring onto her finger and smiled. His smile faded when he thought of the last obstacle.

"What about Jesse?"

Her smile flitted away too. "I've just gotta explain it to him, I guess. I love him, but it's not meant to be."

He pulled himself out from under her and set her back down on the bed, seeing the nurse come in and look at him disapprovingly. "He knows it was a mistake. He doesn't regret it, but he knows what's up now and he said sorry earlier. I told him we were cool."

"Good. I'll see you in a couple hours then? I think they're about to kick you out. Send Jess in, will you?" And he nodded and sent himself out, his head clear for the first time that day.

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**A/N: Freaking ridiculously long one-shot. Holy god, maybe the longest one shot I've ever written. Let's check, shall we? 2307 words. I think that beats the other longest one, which was chapter 4 or 5 in my LWD story, Falling. Hmmmm. Interesting. I had some great inspiration on this one... and Jesse/Mia was supposed to win out, but my mind clearly just won't give up on Bria happy endings. Stupid plot bunnies.**

**Should I do a sequel? Like the wedding maybe? Idk.... you tell me.  
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